We are looking in the Psalms
today. Psalm 142. It was a glorious thing when you
read the hymns that the Lord has been pleased to give to men
down through the ages. And that speak often to the very
needs of a man. You know all of the hymns are
not alike. Many of them are quite varied.
Some are in great rejoicing and well it is because the Lord does
from time to time give us a great spirit of rejoicing and happiness. But then there are times when
we find ourselves in great sorrow. And it seems that darkness surrounds
us. And the Lord has brought his
people through these things in all ages. And he's given them
the ability to write those things down in such a way that they
can meet the very needs of our heart. And you know, it is, we
live in a day and age when man is exalted And the Lord is put
into a place of secondary importance, as though the Lord's waiting
upon men, so hoping that he can do something for them. And that
he's stymied at every turn by their unfaithfulness or their
lack of performance or this, that, or the other. But the reality
is, as we read the scripture, that that is absolutely not true.
The Lord is waiting upon nobody to do anything. And when men
come to the place where they realize that, and realize that
it is them that's waiting upon God to do something for them,
rather than the other way, then they begin to cry out to the
Lord for help. Otherwise, they think they're
going to do something for the Lord, and they stir one another
up to do stuff. And that's pretty much If you
wanted to describe modern day religion, it's a stir up religion.
Because that's what it's designed to do, stir folks up. Get people
jived up and worked up and fired up and all that stuff, to do
stuff. But oh, when a man's convinced
and convicted of his sin by the Spirit of God, he realizes he
doesn't need that, he needs the Lord to help him. You know, he
doesn't need to fire himself up. We can go, you know, to a
rock concert somewhere if you want to just get fired up in
the flesh. I mean, you know, just go get fired up somewhere. I mean, if that's what you're
looking for. But you see, that's not the,
that is not what it is to worship the Lord. You know, to worship
the Lord, he must be worshiped in spirit and truth. And the
Spirit of God is sent into the world to convince men of sin,
righteousness, and judgment. And when the Spirit of God comes
upon men, He causes them to bow down before Him and to recognize
what they are by nature and who He is. And that's a glorious
thing. When he's pleased to reveal to
his people who he is, that's when the people rejoice. And
so may the Lord do that today with us and help us. As we read
this psalm in 42, a mask of David or a song of David, a prayer,
when he was in the cave, Now David was in a cave twice that
we know of, recorded in scripture, he might have been in a cave
a bunch of times, he might have liked caves, but he was in a
cave two times as he fled from Saul. And so one of those times,
this is a psalm that the Lord gave him while he was in that
cave. Now a cave is a dark place, is it not? is not a place where
you would go to become enlightened. It's a place where you would
go to hide, to be out of sight. And of course, we know that David
was hiding the first time in the cave of Adullam whenever
Saul had, or whenever he had fled from the presence of Saul
into the house of Abimelech or into the, to the priest. And then Saul slew those in the
House of Memlech, and he fled then to the King of Gath. And the King of Gath said, what's
this guy doing here? I think, you know, he must be
come to spy us out here. And so David acted like he was
crazy. And so that the king of Gath
would have pity on him. And then he fled because he figured,
well, you know, he still may kill me. So he fled to the cave
of Anulim. And of course, then later, as
he continued to flee from the presence of Saul, he was in the
cave. And Saul came into the cave. And as we believe, he slept. there in the cave, and as he
slept, David, of which Saul of course didn't know David was
in the cave, and David went up there and cut the corner of his
robe off. And then when Saul came out,
of the cave, then David came out after him and he held up
a piece of the robe and he said, you know, if I wanted to kill
you, I had the chance. But he said, I would not lift
up my hand against the Lord's anointing. And so those were
the times David was in caves at least that we know of in the
scripture. And so here, I believe that He cries unto the Lord, he said.
I cried unto the Lord with my voice. With my voice unto the
Lord did I make my supplication. I poured out my complaint before
him. I showed before him my trouble.
When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, when thou knewest,
then knewest my path. In thy way wherein I walk have
they privily laid a snare for me. I looked on my right hand
and beheld, but there was no man that would know me. Refuge
failed me. No man cared for my soul. I cried
unto Thee, O Lord, and I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion
in the land of the living. Attend unto my cry, for I am
brought very low. Deliver me from my persecutors,
for they are stronger than I. Bring my soul out of prison,
that I may praise thy name. The righteous shall come past
me about, for they shall deal bountifully with me. Now, as
with all of these Psalms, this was the experience of David.
But more greatly, I believe that it is the experience of Christ.
who came into the darkness, into the cave, as it were, in our
behalf. I mean, he was in a place, as
a man, he was a son, though he were a son, yet learned he obedience
by the things which he suffered. Now, that always causes me great
consternation every time that I read that. and I've never gotten
a complete grasp upon it. I've had some insights into it,
but it always amazes me to consider that the Son of the living God,
the one who was before all things and by whom all things consist,
yet for our sakes became poor and dwelt among men as a man
with the limitations of men. Now surely, he demonstrated the
fact that he did not cease to possess the powers of God, but
yet he walked among men as a man. And he experienced the weakness
of men. He experienced the desolation
of men. He experienced what it was to
be separated from his father. He experienced what it was to
see darkness instead of light. And those things, if that doesn't
cause you to boggle your mind to a little bit, then you've
not considered really who He is. To consider that that One
who bled and died for us is the eternal God of glory. That One who owns time. That One who causes time to exist. See, God doesn't exist in time. He made time for us. See, you couldn't be here if
it wasn't for time. I mean, you're a creature of
time. God's not. He inhabits the eternity. He dwells in the light which
no man can approach. He is immortal, invisible, the
only wise God. He's beyond the comprehension
of men, outside the realm of our process of thought. And yet he came and walked among
us as a man and he was in the dark place for us. And he says,
I cried unto the Lord with my voice. Now, the Lord was a man
of prayer. How often we read in the scripture
that rising a great while before day, he went to a mountain to
pray. Or he stayed all night in prayer
because he was in communion with his father. He was a perfect
son. He came to do his father's will.
He didn't lack in anything to do that. And he cried unto the
Lord. I cried unto the Lord with my
voice, with my voice to the Lord did I make supplication. Because
the Lord had given us a voice, has he not, that we might cry
out unto him. Now, the voice, unfortunately
we use the voice for many things that it ought not be used for,
just like everything that we possess. Men will take those
things that God meant for good and use them for evil. But the
Lord gave us a voice that we might commune with Him. I mean,
He spoke with Adam in the garden, did He not? And Adam spoke back. Why? Because he had a voice.
The Lord gave it to him. I cried unto the Lord with my
voice, and I did make supplication. I poured out my complaint before
Him and showed before Him my trouble. Now, you know, it is a true thing
that most people, unfortunately, the thing that mostly motivates
men to pray is need. I mean, you know, we want to
get our needs met. I mean, as long as everything's
going great, we're just going along great. We don't think that
much about the Lord, do we? Well, when hell things get, we
get in trouble, we begin to cry out to the Lord. And we'll be,
well it is, for the Lord has designed prayer to be useful
in times of trouble. But prayer is not simply an activity
of when we get into a bind and we need some help. Prayer is
the communion of the heart with the Lord continually. And our
desire to pray ought not to always just be born out of, Lord, we
need something, but, Lord, we want to praise your name. See,
that's what prayer is, primarily, is worship. That's how it begins. That's how the Lord told his
disciples to begin praying, did he not? Our Father, who art in
heaven, hallowed be thy name. Before anything's ever asked,
Lord, your name is great and glorious. You're worthy to be
praised. But, having said that, even the
Lord poured out his complaint to the Lord. And we often have
complaints, do we not? I mean, things don't seem to
be working out right for us. Now, would the Lord have us to
try to solve these problems ourselves? Now, that's what the self-help
gurus tell us, is it not? I mean, you just got to, You
have to pick yourself up by your bootstraps. You've got to just
get in there and do it, buddy. You know you can do it. And all
that kind of stuff. No, the Lord would have us to
recognize our weakness that we do need Him. And so the man who
does not recognize his weakness does not know what he is by nature. Because the Lord will teach a
man. When He convinces a man of sin, He teaches a man of his
need. When He teaches a man of righteousness,
He teaches a man of his need. And when He teaches a man of
judgment, He teaches a man of his need. And so it is the need
that causes us to pour out our complaint before the Lord. I
showed Him before Him my trouble. I laid it out, Lord, this is
what's troubling me. The Lord would have us to make
our request known unto Him. He would have us to pour out
our complaint before Him, because He ever lives to make intercession
for us, and He has been tempted in all points like as we are.
There's no sorrow that has overtaken you that has not overtaken the
Lord Jesus Christ in your behalf. I mean, you know, the shortest
verse in the Bible is Jesus wept. And yet one of the most powerful
verses, if you pause and think of it, Jesus wept. Now, much has been said and many
have speculated exactly why it was that Jesus wept. And we don't
know the fullness of why he wept. I can think of many reasons why
he wept. The people, as they stood by, said behold how he
loved Lazarus. They considered that he wept
for Lazarus, and well might he have wept for Lazarus. He did love Lazarus, and Lazarus
was dead. And most surely, is that not
a common consideration of men? I mean, when you love somebody,
and they have died, you can't help but weep. Now, there are
certain people in the earth that you probably wouldn't weep for
if they died. There's been people that we rejoiced when we heard
that they had died. I think of Osama bin Laden. I mean, you know, people I don't
know of too many people. I mean, his family and those
that knew him, maybe they might have wept, but there wasn't a
whole lot of people that wept for him. But when you love somebody,
you can't help but weep when they pass. Because death is a
terrible enemy. The scripture says, the last
enemy that shall be destroyed. I mean, death, there are ways
in which we can consider death as a welcome thing. But yet,
death is the enemy. The Lord designed it that way.
Because death is a reminder that sin and judgment are real. Things
die because of sin. If there had been no sin, there
would have been no death. But because there was, there
is. And so, when my spirit was overwhelmed within me when thou
knewest my path and the way wherein I walk have they privily laid
a snare for me." His spirit was overwhelmed within
him when he wept at Lazarus' tomb. He wept not simply for
Lazarus, but he wept for the people who wept. You know sometimes
when you know somebody's heart's breaking and you love them and
it breaks your heart because their heart's breaking. You know,
you feel their sadness. Is that not what we as brethren
are to do in bearing one another's burdens? When from each, that hymn, I
was trying to think of a hymn right there a minute ago. It
says, from each eye there flows a sympathizing tear. See, when
our brethren hurt, we hurt with them. And when Christ stood at
the tomb of Lazarus and he knew the weeping of Martha and Mary,
and he knew the sadness that gripped their heart, he wept
for them. And he wept when he considered
that they could not understand in the fullness the power that
he had. See, he was life itself. I mean,
he came to Mary, and she said, Lord, if you'd just been here,
he wouldn't have died. He said, Mary, don't you know who I am? Basically, he said, look,
it's going to be all right. It's just like Brother Al talked
about when he slept in the boat. It's going to be all right. And Jesus wept as he thought
many times. I'm sure he wept when he considered
the faithless and unbelieving generation to which he was sent.
How often did he stand in their midst and perform miracles that
testified to the goodness of God, the blessing of God, and
who he was as he testified of his father. And yet they believed
not. And he wept. But oh, his weeping, I suppose, is typical of his station in
life. because he bore our griefs and
carried our sorrows. When my spirits overwhelmed within
me, I looked on my right hand and behold, there was no man
that would know me. You know, the Lord was a lonesome
person. Now, he was surrounded with his
12 disciples, but even in the midst of his 12 disciples, he
was a lonesome man because there was none of them that really
got it. I mean, they knew he was a great man and Peter even
testified, thou art the son of the living God, but he didn't
know what that really was, did he? I mean, he didn't really
get it. I mean, Thomas, the Lord stood
before him and Thomas said, well, Lord, why don't you show me,
show us the father? No, it wasn't Thomas, it was
Philip, I always get that wrong. And he said, Philip, have I been
with you so long, and you have not known me? I mean, I walk
with you every day. You saw me raise the dead. You
saw me heal the sick. And you don't know me? He said,
Philip, he that hath seen me hath seen the Father. He said,
for I and the Father are one. Oh, the glory. But you know,
think of the anguish that gripped his heart as a man. Now think
of him as a man walking among men and he's desiring for them
to know what he knows, to know who he is, to know the glory
of God as he has experienced it and seen it. And yet they
can't. They don't. The blackness of
their heart has kept them from it. I looked on my right hand
and beheld, and there was no man that would know me. Refuge
failed me. No man cared for my soul. They
didn't care for him. Oh, they said they did. But what happened? They all fled,
did they not? He said, man, we better get out
of here. Peter, Lord, though all men, though all men deny thee, I won't. Lord, you can count on me. As far as we know, he's the only
one that did deny the Lord openly. Maybe some others did. But the Lord would teach him,
would he not? Because he loved him. He said,
Peter, I pray for thee, that thy faith fail not. Satan has
desired to have thee. And he's going to think he's
got you. He said, he's only going to serve my purpose, because
I'm going to bring you, Peter, to a place to know that I love
you, even when you have denied me
three times. Refuge failed me, but you see,
he didn't have a place of refuge. Peter had a place of refuge,
did he not? The disciples had a place where
they could come, Lord save us, we perish. St. Peter, when he
stepped out of the boat and he found out he really couldn't
walk on water and he started to sink and he knew he was done
for if the Lord didn't save him. But yet the Lord, no man stood
with him, no man cared for him. He had none to cry out to, did
he? I mean, all he could do was cry
out to his father, but for our sake, you see, he bore our sin,
and in bearing our sin, he was forsaken of his father. I cried unto thee, O Lord, I
said, thou art my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.
For though he slay me, yet will I trust in him, the words of
Job, but the words of Christ. Who was it that put the dagger in Christ's heart
but his father? And yet, who did he commend himself
to? He said, Father, into thy hands
I commend my spirit. Though he slay me, yet will I
trust in him. See, that was Christ for our sake. Thou art my refuge and my portion
in the land of the living. He didn't look for anything else.
That's all he wanted, to do his Father's will. Attend unto my
cry, for I am brought very low. Deliver me from my persecutors,
for they are stronger than I. Now, you know that the crucifixion
of Christ would not have taken place apart from the cruel intentions
and the wicked hands of men. But the Lord ordained that, did
he not? Now, they were ready to do that. The Lord didn't cause them to
do something against their will, did he? No, they willingly took
him and crucified him. They hated him. They wanted to
be done with him. But know for sure that all of
this was according to the ordained purpose of Almighty God, according
to what he says in the scriptures. He said, ye by wicked hands have
crucified him. And surely they are stronger
than I, he said. In some ways, there was nothing
he could do. Now, he could have, as the script says, he could
have called 10,000 angels. I mean, he could have destroyed
the whole world just like that and done whatever he wanted to
do. But for our sake, brethren, he became weak and he subjected
himself to the whims of men. Think about that. He subjected
himself to the free will of men. Old men have a free will, don't they?
That's what we're told, and they did. And what did they do with it? They
destroyed the Son of God by their own hands. I'm brought very low, they're
stronger than I. And in that moment when they
nailed him to the cross. Now do you think that he enjoyed
having nails driven through his hands and his feet? No. Well how did they do it?
I mean, would it be normal in the flesh for a man just to not
struggle against that or to not flinch from it or whatever? Now
the scripture says, as a lamb before his shearers is dumb,
so openeth not his mouth. I'm not suggesting that he fought
against them, but it would be just a normal thing of flesh
and blood to recall that having some pain inflicted upon your
body. He couldn't help it. Wouldn't
be pain otherwise. And so in that fashion, in that
way, they were stronger than him. They overwhelmed him. They
nailed him to a cross. They crushed a crown of thorns
upon his head. They hurt him. They didn't care. They meant
to do that. Bring my soul out of prison that
I may praise thy name. The righteous shall come pass
me about. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ went into prison for our
sake, did he not? He went into the grave. Now,
I don't know, you know, there's people got all kind of theories
and stuff about what was going on, you know, during the three
days and three nights that the Lord Jesus was in the grave.
I don't know. I don't know this, but I know
he was in the grave just like any other man that dies is put
into the grave, put in there. And his body lay there in that
grave. But he cried out, during the
course of his life, bring me out, my soul, out of prison,
that I may praise thy name. Because you see, the Lord's,
the crucifixion of the Lord was not an end unto itself. Now had
the Lord Jesus come into the world and died for sin, that
would have been a glorious thing, no doubt. But if that's all that
had been done, then there would have been no victory over sin.
There would have been a payment for it, but there would have
been no triumph. But you see, Christ didn't stay
in that prison house of the grave, but he was delivered from it,
and he prayed during the course of his life, Lord, deliver me
out of prison. Take me out of that darkness.
Not for my sake, not that I might have the enjoyment of it, but,
O Lord, for the people's sake, for those I came to redeem, because
the salvation of my people will not be complete until I have
triumphed over the grave and come forth and been raised from
the dead. And the Lord did so, did He not?
Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise Thy name."
You see, He triumphed over death. And he did the Father's will,
and he stood at the stone of the grave as that mighty victor,
triumphant, one whom the grave could not hold. The righteous
shall come past me about, for thou shalt deal bountifully with
me. Oh, he is that one who's been lifted
up, exalted. And why is He exalted? He is
exalted, first of all, for His own glory. He came to do the
Father's will. And He would bring glory to His
name in the redemption of the people. Now see, why do we preach
the gospel? Now today, it's all kind of caught
up in, again, it's a man-centered deal, and everybody thinks that
we preach the gospel for man's sake. Dear brethren, we preach
the gospel for the glory of God to manifest the redemption that
Christ has set forth in His triumph over sin, death, and the grave.
He's magnified. He's glorified. Now in that which
He accomplished, He has indeed purchased the redemption of His
people. And He has brought life and immortality
to light. through the preaching of the
gospel. How else would we have known what Christ accomplished?
What if He just came, died on the cross, and the Bible had
never been written, and He ascended back to the Father, and we just
were left here to live our lives? Now, the redemption would have
been no less, would it? I mean, it would have been exactly
the same thing that it is. I mean, the fact that you know
about it doesn't change the fact of what redemption is, does it?
But you see, the Lord sent the message of the gospel into the
world for the benefit of men. That we might hear the good news,
we might rejoice at that which Christ has done. Oh, what a glorious thing it
is, dear brethren, to hear the sound. How beautiful are the
feet of them that bring the gospel of peace unto us. Not that they
might be exalted, but that Christ might be. But what a glorious
thing it is, dear brethren, to hear the good news that Christ
has satisfied the claims of the law for sinners. That's a glorious
thing. It's a grand and glorious thing,
dear brethren, to be given ears to hear it. Now the Grace Gazette
this week is on speaking and hearing. And we place a lot of
emphasis on speaking. Speaking is a good thing. The
preaching of the gospel is speaking. But I'll tell you a more glorious
thing than speaking is hearing. Oh, that the Lord might give
us ears to hear. the glorious good news that Jesus Christ is
the Savior of sinners. Oh, what a glorious thing it
is, brethren. When a man is brought to the
place where he believes that, when he rejoices in it, when
it becomes that thing which fills his heart and mind and soul with
gladness, and it moves his heart to praise the name of the Lord,
because he knows that unspeakable truth that is set forth in that
redemptive work of Christ. He shall compass me about, for
thou shalt deal bountifully with me. The Lord expected that the
Father would deal bountifully with him because he had come
to do the Father's will and he had performed the Father's will
completely. See, the father made the covenant
with the son. Now, you hear a lot of folks
talking about the covenants and all that kind of stuff and how
the men are involved in the covenants. There's only one man involved
in the covenants of God. And that is the Lord Jesus Christ. For the Lord made the promise,
not to Abraham and his seeds as of many, but as to his seed
as of one, even Jesus Christ. So all the covenant promises
are wrapped up in Christ. He came to fulfill it. And dear
brethren, as that one who came to fulfill his father's will
and did perform it, he could rightly expect, could he not,
that the Lord would deal bountifully with him and all of those who
were given to him. He said, Father, thou hast given
them to me. He says, I've kept them all.
He said, I ain't lost a one. What a glorious thing. He'll
keep those from falling and the Lord will deal bountifully and
he shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied
because you see he will see that that vast number which no man
can number of all humanity that belong to
him and he'll say even so father for so it seemed good in thy
sight. He has dealt bountifully with us